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Evolution of the Healthcare Contact Center
Session 52, February 12, 2019
Lynne Hildreth, Director of Patient Access, Moffitt Cancer Center
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Lynne Hildreth
Has no real or apparent conflicts of interest to report.
Conflict of Interest
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Learning Objectives
15 minutes of presentation Moffitt Cancer Center and the impact
of the Patient Contact Center
35 minutes of Audience Conversation
Agenda
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Define primary roles of the healthcare consumer contact center
Identify research-based metrics used to measure contact center
performance
Discuss pre-registration information needed to facilitate an
express check-in at admission
Describe technology used to monitor patient interactions in the
contact center
Assess the role of the contact center in increasing pre-service
collections
Learning Objectives
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Role of the Contact Center
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Consumer expectations
High availability
Seamless service
24/7 support
“Revenue cycle call centers must be flexible, fast and
versatile to meet patient expectations and market
shifts.”
"The Current State of the Revenue Cycle Call Center.” Revenue
Cycle Analytics, 2018, Issue 1. Healthcare Business Insights.
Evolving Consumer Expectations
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Healthcare Patient Communication
Black
Hole
Black
Hole
“Please hang up and call 911”
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First stop in the consumer experience
Set the tone for the entire patient encounter
Often-untapped opportunity to build patient loyalty and brand
awareness
Healthcare Contact Center
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21 clinical programs focused on disease groups (breast, GYN,
lung, GI, skin, etc.)
Highly specialized, multi-disciplinary approach attracts patients
from throughout Florida and the country, particularly for rare
cancers
In the process of making a cultural shift from Provider-First to
Patients-First
My Organization: Moffitt Cancer Center
3 Locations
in Tampa, FL
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Moffitt Revenue Cycle
Revenue Integrity
Health
Information
Management
Moffitt Medical
Group
Patient Access
Patient
Financial
Services
700 team members, 5 key departments
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Contact Today at Moffitt
813-745-8000
Patient
Care
Hotline
Patient
Care
Hotline
Mobile App
My Moffitt
PC
Communication
RN’s of the Day
(Rotations in
Each Department)
Patient
OR
Billing, Appointment Center,
HIM, etc.
Resolve
Start Secure Message
Escalate
Voicemail
1986 - 2018
Portal
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Commitment to efficiency, quality
and reimbursement optimization
Integrated scheduling,
preregistration, and insurance
verification
Single point of contact to schedule
an appointment at any Moffitt clinic,
lab or radiology facility
Moffitt’s Principles for Patient Access
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Front End
Facilitating streamlined access to services: Scheduling
Improving consumer experience: Patient Answer Center
Validating coverage to prevent denials: Financial Clearance
Improving quality of patient registration and billing data: Pre-reg
Increasing front-end payment
Reducing appointment no-shows and referral leakage: Reminders
Back End
Billing/Account Servicing, Guarantor Collections
Other
Clinical?
Medical records: Release of Information
Portal / technical support line
Primary Roles / Key Functions
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Forward-thinking health systems centralizing to streamline
scheduling, pre-registration, billing and collections
Signs point to a one-touch option for patients in the future
eliminate the front-end/back-end division
Options to set up payments plans
Price estimation
Centralization
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Metrics
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Peter Drucker:
“What gets measured gets managed - even when it's
pointless to measure and manage it, and even if it harms
the purpose of the organization to do so.”
>100 metrics in our ACD system
Workforce Management (WFM) introduces dozens more….
Research-Based Metrics
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Getting the Level of Detail is Critical
So what?
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Should you present them together?
Historical vs Real Time Metrics
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Focus… perhaps create one of each
Department metric
Team metric
Individual metric
People don’t like math! Watch your decimal places consider not
just the metric but the presentation of the metric.
Averages vs. Medians
How do you choose?
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Choose one metric
Quality Accuracy Service – “hard items” and “soft items”
Net Promoter Score?
Volumes what matters?
Average Handle Time vs. Production Metrics
Performance Metrics to Consider
Metric Definition Advantages Disadvantages
Abandonment
Rate
% of Callers which hung up
prior to reaching an agent
Easy to explain /
understand
Easy to benchmark
A caller that won’t hold at all
(repeated call backs) can skew
the rate.
Needs sufficient volume (n >
500 calls?).
Service Level % of Calls which were
answered within ___ seconds
Removes outliers
(those who won’t wait
for even a few seconds)
from your metric
Difficult to grasp / relate to.
Variety of # of seconds used
makes benchmarking difficult.
Hold Times Average time a caller waits
on hold prior to reaching an
agent
Easy to explain /
understand
Benchmarks are less available
(can vary widely by type of
business) relationship of call
duration vs hold time is
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Role of Technology
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At Moffitt:
Knowledge Base and Digital Algorithms: Cannot expect
agents to rely on their memory and experience
Call recording voice and screen capture
ACD skillsets, call routing, real-time reporting
Patient Portal
Faxing engine (sigh!)
Technical Approach
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ACD skillsets – dedicated outbound agents and inbound “pods”;
get benefits of centralization while retaining expertise of
decentralized approach
Multi-channel communication strategy: seamless service and
accountability
Email; Portal; Live chat (with AI?)
Outstanding service via the patient portal to drive business there
Digital Audit Trail
Secrets to Patient Communication
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Quality Assurance
Call recording and scorecards for quality monitoring
Metrics for accuracy/comprehensiveness of transcription
Quality Review Process
Supervisors perform first level review
Quality Review team performs secondary review
More QA tools
Audio search checks recordings for key words
Screen recording matches on-screen activity with recordings
Voice Recording/QA
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One location for all recordings from scheduling to pre-registration
to contact center to billing/collections
Digital audit trail of patient interactions
Valuable data to improve consumer experience
Corresponding faxes/electronic records
Moved clinic’s faxes to centralized electronic faxing engine
Send records, move to worklist based on assigned clinic
Clinic checks records and uploads to patient’s chart
Continuity in Communication
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A Special Word on Phone Setup
Moffitt Care Hotline
813-745-8000
Caller ID masking is
critical
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Pre-Service Collections
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Pre-service collection at time of:
Scheduling?
Pre-registration?
Financial counseling?
Price Estimation
Is it a pre-requisite to up-front
collections?
How accurate must it be?
Patient Financing Programs
Is this a pre-requisite to up-front
collections?
Do you stand to lose more than
you gain without one?
Where does up-front collection fit in?
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Do you believe the benefits afforded by a contact center outweigh
the downsides? Does a contact center truly reduce costs or
increase revenue/collections?
What metrics do you think are the most valuable for a contact
center? What is the best way to present metrics?
What technologies could further enhance the contact center?
What is the best way to introduce pre-service collections? Is price
estimation necessary? Patient financing programs?
What cultural, technical or other challenges can you see in trying
to implement a contact center in your setting?
While it wasn’t covered in the presentation, what best practices for
recruiting, training and retention?
Audience Conversations
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Lynne Hildreth
lynne.hildreth@moffitt.org
813-745-6795
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